Running head: NUTRITION AWARENESS

Nutrition Awareness
Signature Assignment
Blanca Zamora and Sarah Judd
Arizona State University
PPE 310: Health Literacy for Schools
Dr. Hesse
May 1, 2016

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Introduction

Children are extremely influenced by all they see around them, Apart from food
marketing, children learn the skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant for consumption
through social agents such as family, school and peers (Atik, Ozdamar Ertekin, 2013).
From their parents, siblings, family, friends, and teachers, everything that is seen can
influence the choices a student makes in their life, especially their food choices. School is
an extremely influential place where students spend around 40 hours at school in a week.
They spend the majority of the day in their school surrounded by their teachers,
classmates, and the staff at school. They discuss what snacks they bring to school, what
snacks they are going to buy after school, and what their favorites snacks and food are.
They observe closely what their teachers eat for snacks and lunch.
Nutrition awareness is not always prominent in schools and the households of the
students. Schools do not always provide nutritionally healthy food choices and parents
may not have the time or money to provide their children with healthy meal choices as
junk food tends to be a faster and cheaper option. The community that a student is
surrounded by should portray and offer a nutritionally healthy lifestyle. The school
community should promote nutrition awareness and teachers and the school should work
together to implement programs that teach about the importance of making healthy food
choices. A program like the Live Healthy will help raise awareness and provide the
community with resources needed to lead students into a healthy lifestyle.
When coming up with the program's name, we simply wanted something short
and simple. We wanted something that would tell a lot about the program in just two

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words. The word live to us signifies, to stay alive, but when adding the word healthy
it tells the world that you can live a healthy lifestyle by just following a few steps.
http://blancazamora.weebly.com/

http://sarahjudd310.weebly.com/

Review of Current Literature

Children's perception of food and healthy eating: Dynamics behind their food
preferences (Atik, D., & Ozdamar Ertekin, Z., 2013). The Izmir University of Economics
conducted a study where they mainly focused on how children are influenced in their
food choices and eating habits. A number of qualitative inquiry based interviews were
done along with focus groups were conducted with children ages 7-11. The main focus
of this research was to find out children's thoughts and feelings about healthy eating and
healthy food. In order to conduct this research a lot of interaction and research methods
were done, and that included things such as; drawing, words games, and role-playing. To
get a better understanding on this topic many families and educators were interviewed as
well. The outcome of this research illustrates that children would choose food that's more
appealing than food that's not. The second outcome of this research shows that a child's
family characteristics, lifestyle and many other dietary factors influence their food
choice. Overall, the researchers gained a better understanding of children's thoughts and
feelings about food.
In addition to this topic, Anna Ludvigsen and Sarah Scott interviewed a total of
174 children in three different age groups. The research focused on the meaning behind
the food preferences of children. The previous article goes into detail about the thoughts
and feelings on food children have. This research specifically goes in depth on children's
food culture. It states that children have a difficult time making healthy decisions and

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choosing a balanced diet due to the beliefs children might have. The research done also
investigates how food choices interact with issues of social disadvantage, gender and
ethnicity (Ludvigsen, A., & Scott, S., 2009). The data obtained from this research show
that childrens food culture determines their food choices. This varies based on gender or
socioeconomic factors, and this may change as they get older or peers and parents
influence this. One main factor that influences children in this study is taste. In this
research children were all asked to rank the different factors that influence them when
choosing food. They had the opportunity to choose between friends, family, adverts,
money and taste. Half of them choose taste over any other factor (Ludvigsen, A., &
Scott, S., 2009).
Designing healthy communities, raising healthy kids: National public health week
2006 (Benjamin, G. C.,2008). This researcher stated that many children who live close to
school are not walking to school or using their bicycle, instead they are relying on parents
to take them to the school. Parents are relying on automobiles to take their children to
school. Benjamin Georges also stated that the lack of access to fresh foods has lead to
childhood obesity and health disparities in low-income communities. The American
Public Health Association, along with other partners is raising awareness on children's
health and the relationship it has to the environment. The change they talk about is
working together as a community in creating healthier environments. Things that include
building are healthier environment are; livable town centers, better public transit, and
more bicycle paths, sidewalks, and parks (Benjamin, G. C., 2008).
In the article School-based Internet-tailored fruit and vegetable education
combined with brief counseling increases childrens awareness of intake levels, an

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experiment in the Netherlands was conducted on the intake level of fruits and vegetables
by students aged 9 12 years old. Higher intake of fruits and vegetables may contribute
to the prevention of certain diseases and obesity. They authors note that there is an
importance to promoting health eating for children at a younger age to promote a healthy
lifestyle as adults. They want to promote nutrition education through computer and
technological means, as it is more likely to be read and processed by students.
The authors state, The study showed that this compact, integrated two-component
intervention induced positive changes in knowledge and awareness of dietary intake
levels among schoolchildren. To induce changes in intake levels, more comprehensive
interventions may be needed (Resiti T Mangunkusumo et al. 2007). The integrated
component mentioned involved both the school and home environment through Internet
and dietary counseling with parents and students with the school nurses and online
questionnaires about their intake of fruits and vegetables. They monitored the progression
of fruits and vegetable intakes as they educated students and parents through the months
on the importance of nutrition.
In another article, author Deborah Zuercher discusses the importance of bringing
nutrition awareness to students. In the article Math, science, and web-based activities to
raise awareness about nutrition and obesity, one of the main ideas presented is that
Teachers can raise awareness about the increase in obesity in the United States and help
students make better nutritional choices (Zuercher, D. K., 2011). Another main idea
provided is information about obesity and other health-related issues and suggests some
engaging, classroom-tested instructional strategies for helping students in the middle
grades learn how to lead healthy lives and avoid becoming super-sized (Zuercher, D.

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K., 2011). Middle school teachers came up with strategies to help students see and
visually grasp the concept of obesity. There are PowerPoint presentations available to
teachers to show students the United States map graphed with the obesity trends.
Teachers can incorporate this into lessons and create discussions, debates, WebQuests,
inquiry projects, presentations, or persuasive writing about the growing concern of
national obesity.
Zuercher goes on to describe more strategies, such as one for middle grade
students, called sugar math. Give students real life examples and relative visuals to help
them grasp the concept of just how much sugar they intake when they have something
like a can of soda. This article gives many examples for showing students what type of
foods are unhealthy and also provides examples on helping students identify what healthy
nutrition looks like by providing strong visual aids and websites like ChooseMyPlate.gov.
School policies associated with the development of healthy students often
function to cultivate a healthier school community overall states Cook, in the chapter
Federal School Food Policies and Professional Guidelines from the journal Healthy
eating in schools: Evidence-based interventions to help kids thrive (Cook-Cottone, C. P.,
2013). The author, Cook, addresses the issues and policies teachers face when pursuing
food and health issues within schools. Health and well-being is important for the success
of students in their education, however little emphasis is placed upon the importance of
these aspects in a childs education. Cook states, we review some of the more central
policies and initiatives relevant to creating a healthy food and body school environment
that supports the healthy student. This information can help school personnel working to
make healthy changes in their school community by providing policy and guideline

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rationale for their initiatives. He goes in depth into discussion of school food programs
and how they are run in different communities, in particular the discussion of free or
reduced-price lunch or breakfast programs, the food and meal plans available to students,
and the nutritional values of these options. Nutrition education is addressed as well as
competitive foods at school, food as reward, farm-to-school-programs and communityschool gardens, access to water, physical activity, and more topics of health education in
school.
School Context
Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy is in the Roosevelt School District, in an
urban area in South Phoenix. Between both first grade classes there are a total of 38
students. One class is considered mainstream and the other is an ELD classroom. The
school is K- 8th and according to School Digger, in 2014 there were a total of 424
students enrolled. Out of those 424 students 12 were Caucasian, 0 Asians, 3 African
americans, 3 American Indian, 0 Pacific Islander, 4 were more than two races and 402
were hispanic/Latino (School Digger, 2016).
Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy is a public title 1 school, that was once a
failing school, but it is now a B+ school. The percentage of ELLs in the school is not
determined, however 43% of the population's household language is Spanish, according
to Movoto Real Estate. In 2014 the percentage of students who received free/reduced
lunch was a 1.4 ratio and the student to teacher ration last year was 24.2 (School Digger,
2016).
The total population, race around the school is a total of 29,865. There are eight
main populations that make up the demographics around the school. The majority of the

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community is Hispanic with a population of 19,032. The African American population is

the second most around the school, with a population of 5,766. 3,108, are Caucasian, 451,
are American Indian, 139 are Pacific Islanders, 373 are Asian, 424 are two or more races
and 59 are other race not listed, according to City Data.
Synthesis of Information
The two articles, Children's perception of food and healthy eating:Dynamics
behind their food preferences (Atik, D., & Ozdamar Ertekin, Z., 2013) and Real kids
don't eat quiche: What food means to children. Food, Culture and Society: An
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research are very similar but the article that
differs is Designing healthy communities, raising healthy kids: National public health
week 2006 (Benjamin, G. C.,2008). The way they differ is because the first two articles
focus on children's perception on food, specifically their thoughts and feelings. The other
article mainly focuses on how working as a community can help transform a community
to a healthy community. This article also states things that can be done to help create that
healthy community. To conclude, it is clear that the two of the articles are focused on one
topic and the other article focuses on something different.
Nutritional awareness is extremely important for the upcoming generation. In two
of the researched articles there is an emphasis on nutritional awareness. The articles are,
Math, science, and web-based activities to raise awareness about nutrition and obesity
(Zuercher, D. K.., 2011) and Healthy eating in schools: Evidence-based interventions to
help kids thrive (Cook-Cottone, C. P. 2013). Zuercher discusses that there are many
strategies to teaching students about nutrition. Simply telling students that a certain food
item is unhealthy wont be as effective as creating a lesson that visually shows the impact

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unhealhty food has on ones body. They give an example through a Sugar Math lesson,
which visually shows how much sugar is in certain meals. In the other article, Cook says
that nutritional awareness begins with school policies. This includes the educational
components within the classroom. How we teach students about nutrition is just as
important as changing the food policies in the cafeteria. Both are informing the readers
about the importance of nutritional awareness and how we teach these concepts to
students.
In summary, the articles researched were divided into four main categories. The
categories all focused on something different. The categories were; the perception, kids
have on food, communities raising healthy kids, nutritional awareness and the school
context. The first two articles had the common theme of how children view food and to
find what children thought and felt about healthy food. The third article was aimed
towards parents. The theme of this article was how many children live so close to school,
but yet parents take them to school. The researcher states that working as a community
can help create healthy environments. The third main category focused on nutritional
awareness. The three articles aimed towards nutritional awareness all note that there is
an importance to promoting healthy eating for children at a younger age to promote a
healthy lifestyle as adults. The first of these articles discussed how they observed what
students themselves note about their own nutritional intake of food. There is a strong
emphasis of bringing what students know and giving them more information and
strategies for a healthy eating lifestyle.
Overall, the articles illustrate different themes that are all important to understand.
Understanding what children really feel and think about food can be the first step in

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determining how to accomplish a well put together program. Once that's set up, the
community is involved in helping make a difference in their child's life. Food awareness
is what we need to advocate, whether it's a teacher, parent or staff member. Children
should always be aware of the food they are eating and how that food might affect them.
Parents can help with the food choices by pursuing them to make healthier choices and
to encourage them to live a healthy lifestyle.
Practical Implications
The best way to promote nutritional awareness at Cesar Chavez Leadership
Academy is by creating an after school program that invites students, parents and others
to join us. This program would meet monthly and teachers would take turns to help with
this program. For bigger events, 2-3 teachers would team up and host these events.( See
Appendix A for more information on some of the main events).

Along with the main

events, this program strives for awareness and one of the main events that is hosted by
teachers is the How to be a healthy kid (See Appendix B for more information on this
event). This program also strives for community involvement and parents are welcomed
as well. We host events that are called Parent Awareness night (See Appendix C for
more information on events like this).
Marketing
The marketing strategy that would work best at a school setting would be things
such as posters, newsletters, and morning announcements. The school posters would be
done by the student council committee, and they would be hung in the main hallways.
The newsletters would be sent home at least 3 weeks in advance to the whole school
(See Appendix B & C for examples). In addition to the newsletters, the morning

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announcement crew would talk a little bit about the different events going on with this
program. We would encourage the morning crew to sound excited about this program.
(See Appendix A) would be hung in front of the school, so parents and students know
exactly when the events are. Finally, this program would have a set room to meet, so
they would not have to worry about the location or room number because it would be the
same room every time.
Committee
The committee involved in this program would include all the teachers at the
school. Every month one teacher would lead the monthly event/program. The teachers
would have volunteers such as parents or 6-8th graders. They would volunteer through a
sign up sheet that would be located in the front office. This sign up sheet would be
promoted via the newsletters. In the bigger events such as (See Appendix B & C) there
would be 2-3 teachers facilitating the event/program. On parent Awareness nights, one
guest speaker would be invited to speak and a translator would be available for Spanish
speaking parents.
Admin
The school administration's role would be to support the program's success.
Administration would be invited to every event that is scheduled monthly. The current
principal at Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy is very involved with everything that
goes on in the school. She is in charge of the Facebook page where she updates what's
going on in school. The proposal of the program would have a positive effect in the
school and administration would support it all the way. The program is promotes food
awareness to both the students and the community. Planning out everything before

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presenting the program to the administration would be helpful in case they would have
any questions.
Funding
The way this program would be funded is by donations, fundraisers and grants.
The office would have a box where parents or students could donate to this program. The
school would conduct a Scholastic Book Fair twice a year and all the money sold from
the fair would be used towards this program. Several teachers would get together and
plan on what grants to apply for in order to get money for this program. The grants that
teachers would consider are; Carol M. White Physical Education Program Grant,
Sportime & SPARK Activation Grant, Healthy Kids Healthy Families, and Healthy
Schools. The teachers would take the day to talk about the grants and plan out the
writing for these grants.
Educational Components
There are many educational components included in our program of nutritional
awareness. Students will learn about the human body, foods that are nutritional, foods
that arent nutritious, gardening skills, which can also be taught through science content
in the classroom (See Appendix A). Students will learn about things such as sugar and
different types of fat found in foods. One of the events that will be available for students
and parents to attend is Alternatives to Soda and Fast Food (See Appendix A). They
will see strong visualizes to show the amount of sugar that can be found in the foods and
drinks that they commonly intake and compare it to how much they should actually be
intaking.
Student Engagement

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The way to engage students in nutritional awareness is through incorporating

health lessons into the curriculum, school events, and the school garden. Having fun and
engaging lessons where students can visualize the importance of nutritional food will
have them working towards a healthy lifestyle. The school garden is also a method that
will be used to engage students in nutritional awareness (See Appendix A). Students will
take charge of taking care of the garden which will give them a sense of responsibility
and leadership. Students will also become engaged through making their own healthy
meals at the How to be a Healthy Kid event (See Appendix B).
Scheduling
The events set for the program will be scheduled to be consistent to prevent
confusion for students and parents. For the main events, these would occur at least once a
month or every other month on Sundays at the best-chosen time for all to attend. The
after school program will be scheduled to meet monthly and as mentioned earlier, the
program will have a set room and time for all to meet.
Conclusion
The program is well thought out, and with all the support there is at Cesar Chavez
Leadership Academy we can impact students health in a positive way. This program is on
the right track to success, we hope that in 1 year this program will have good foundation
and that it is well established. The program in 1 year will still be new and teachers and
staff will still be learning about the program. In 3 years this program will have an even
better foundation. Teachers, students and the community will know more about the
program and hopefully be more involved than the first year. In 5 years this program is

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still in place and changing lives into healthy lives. In addition, we hope that other schools
adopt a program similar to this, so they can start changing lives too.
Many foods that students eat are found to be unhealthy. Kids and their families are
unaware of the nutritional values in their foods. With our program, students will learn
about the foods they eat and how it physically and mentally affects their health. Learning
how to make the healthy choice is important at a young age, and we will help students in
doing so.
One of the things that will surely grow over the years is the school garden. In the
beginning it may be a trial and error process, but within the next three to five years, as
more parents, students, and teachers get involved, we can envision the garden growing
into a community resource for nutritional food and valuable learning opportunities.
The students at Cesar Chavez Leadership Academy are extremely active as they are
provided with an engaging environment. This is the perfect beginning to a healthy
lifestyle. We want to encourage healthy living by educating students that nutritional
health is just as important as being active with physical exercise.
We strive for parent involvement at Cesar Chavez and one of our goals with this program
is for parents to also be aware of what it is they are eating and ways they can help their
children live a healthy life.

References

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Atik, D., & Ozdamar Ertekin, Z. (2013). Children's perception of food and healthy eating:
Dynamics behind their food preferences. International Journal of Consumer
Studies, 37(1), 59-65. doi:10.1111/j.1470-6431.2011.01049.x
Benjamin, G. C. (2008). Designing healthy communities, raising healthy kids: National
public health week 2006. American Journal of Public Health, 98(9 Suppl), S60S60. doi:10.2105/AJPH.98.Supplement_1.S60
c. Nutrition awareness
Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2013). Healthy eating in schools: Evidence-based interventions to
help kids thrive. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
Ludvigsen, A., & Scott, S. (2009). Real kids don't eat quiche: What food means to
children. Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of
Multidisciplinary Research, 12(4), 417-436. doi:10.2752/175174409X456728
b. Healthy communities and raising healthy kids
Resiti T Mangunkusumo, Johannes Brug, Harry J de Koning, Johan van der Lei and Hein
Raat (2007). School-based Internet-tailored fruit and vegetable education
combined with brief counseling increases children's awareness of intake levels.
Public Health Nutrition, 10, pp 273-279. doi:10.1017/S1368980007246671.
Zuercher, D. K.. (2011). Math, science, and web-based activities to raise awareness about
nutrition and obesity: Teachers can raise awareness about the increase in obesity
in the United States and help students make better nutritional choices. Middle
School Journal, 43(1), 4252. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/stable/23047643

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Appendix A

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Appendix
B

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Appendix

Criteria with (5) Exemplary

(4) Highly
Professional
(97 100%)
Proficient
Standards
(93 96%)
NUTRITION AWARENESS
Referenced
Outline
10 Points
Outline
Turned
In(Already
submitted
for points)

Introduction
Introduction
to the topic
and
overview
(In your
purpose
statement
also
introduce
all
subtopics)
InTASC
1c,k; 5k; 9f;
10h
NAEYC 6b
NETS-T
3a,d; 4a,c
CEC
EC2S1;
CC7K1;
EC7K1;CC
9K4;CC9S8

Logical, detailed
outline with at
least 5 original
peer reviewed
references
written in APA
format is
submitted with a
technology
choice selected
to embed the
assignment.

(2) Approaching
Proficient
(73 82%)

(1)
Unsatisfactory
(72%
and below)

Brief outline
with some
references but
not 5 original
peer reviewed
references
written in APA
format are
submitted.

Brief outline
with one or no
references
submitted.

No outline was
submitted.

Introduction is
addressed well,
somewhat
organized and
created a plan
for the paper.

Introduction is
addressed
adequately.

Introduction is
omitted or was
disorganized and
did not create a
plan for the
paper.

1. Literature
review may
address major
issues, but issues
may not be
supported with
expert

1. Literature
review does not
address the
major issues in
the area; the
level of support
for the issues is

1. Literature
review does not
have the depth
of knowledge
appropriate to
this upper level
course.

5 x 2=10 points
10 Points
Introduction is
fully developed,
well organized,
introduces all
topics, created a
plan for the
paper and invites
the reader to
read further.

Introduction is
fully developed
with all topics
introduced.

5 x 2=10 points

Literature Review
Adequacy of
Knowledge
(includes 5
peer
reviewed
original
research

Brief outline
with at least 5
original peer
reviewed
references
written in APA
format is
submitted.

(3) Proficient
(83 92%)

15 Points

1. Literature
review
highlights major
issues in the
area.
2. Thorough use
of a range of

1. Literature
review addresses
major issues in
the area.
2. Thorough use
of a range of
references to

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Signature Assignment Rubric